The one with all the happenings 9/26/2017

Hey everyone!

THERE IS SUNSHINE IN MY SOUL TODAY ♡♡♡ I hope everyone has had a FANTASTIC week! 

So Wednesday we had a supertausch and I was able to work with Sister La Fontaine again! I freaking love her, we work super well together! Anyway, we helped a member carry literally 200 pounds of stuff to Hauptbahnhof and onto her train, it was super exciting and also straining because it was heavy and we had to carry everything for forever. Hahaha so good. So we had to take some selfies while waiting for her train. 

Friday I started to catch the Wiesngrippe (Oktoberfest flu) basically everyone in Munich has been dying of the flu and it's spreading like crazy because of the millions of people here. Super awesome. But we found some potentials while dooring, blessings!

Saturday we went to a soup kitchen to serve [I love the people there, my first time some of the old homeless guys kept asking for my phone number or to take me home but I actually could not understand them till they repeated it 12 times, but since then they've backed off a bit.] Anyway, the soup kitchen is done by the nuns and then we just get to help. I love nuns. They are the best. Anyway there was a lady there who kept telling me what to do and I could not understand her and it was really starting to bum me out because I didn't understand why I couldn't understand her. Turns out she was speaking French. So I stopped feeling bad and got glad because there's no way I was going to understand that. 

Sunday we had an AWESOME lesson with Anastasia. She is a woman from Uganda that I stopped on the street back in August and she got back from Berlin and was finally able to meet. We gave her and her son a tour of the church, and then talked about what we do as missionaries, gave her a Book of Mormon, and she prayed. She said the most sincere prayer I have ever heard in my life. I have never met someone so prepared for the gospel. We are so excited to continue meeting with her, she's amazing! We are just so blessed to have found her ♡.

Monday we went to Schwester Hellmeiers for lunch and read in the Book of Mormon with her. She is such an awesome lady she's sooo funny I just love her. We have the best appointments. I love the members here, they are all the absolute best. 

Today we went to....oktoberfest for district p day, which turned into zone p day for a quick minute as every missionary in Munich was there. It was the first warm day in forever and we just enjoyed the sun and all the crazy wonderful people here! I love lederhosen! Hahaha it kills me. 

This is God’s work. He wants us to participate with Him and His Beloved Son in bringing the gospel into the lives of all of His children. The Lord has promised us that our joy will be great if we bring just one soul unto Him (see D&C 18:15–16). Let us exercise greater faith and work together, members and missionaries, to bring many more souls unto Him. Let every family in the Church include as part of their daily family prayers a plea with the Lord to go before your family members and help them to find someone prepared to receive the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. -Elder M. Russell Ballard 

DID I MENTION ELDER M. RUSSELL BALLARD IS COMING TO OUR MISSION OCTOBER 20TH?!? WELL HE IS! 

LIFE IS GREAT, live it up, keep it cool, I LOVE you all! Thank you all for your emails and support and love, I'm sorry if I haven't responded to your emails we don't have a lot of time for emails, but I read and appreciate every email! 

Liebe Grüße, 

Sister Lundskog ♡

Sister Carley Lundskog
Kirche Jesu Christi HLT
Francéstraße 6
80997 München
Deutschland

The one with Oktoberfest 9/19/2017

Hey y'all 

There's something about missionary work-and being alive really- that really just makes me want to break out into dance. Unfortunately for me, and fortunately for everyone around me, that doesn't usually happen. Usually. Ha ha ha, what a time. 

Tuesday-Thursday afternoon Sister McAllister was sick. So instead of interacting with humans as we normally do, I interacted with myself and the fridge, while Sister McAllister interacted with her bed, and by that I mean she didn't leave her bed...like ever. I was super bored and wanted to talk to people as well as do some sort of missionary work while being locked up so I called a ton of the numbers in our phone and out of like 40 potentials only 4 actually answered. And they all said they would call us back later since they'd be in the area for Oktoberfest and could meet with us before or after hahahahaha. They haven't called back.

Friday Sister McAllister was finally feeling better and so we were able to do some dooring before our dinner appointment with Michael. I love dooring. We were able to talk to so many people, nobody was interested but between the 4 buildings we went in we met people from at least 10 different countries. Germany rocks my socks when it comes to all the people and cultures and ethnicities and languages. I am pretty sure by the time I am done with my mission I will have met someone from every country. WHICH IS SO COOL.

Normally, church would only have been an hour on Sunday, as is the tradition when Oktoberfest begins, but our new bishop is from North Germany and thought that was silly. So it was a regular Sunday as far as church goes. (Oktoberfest is literally the street over from our church and there is a parade that starts when sacrament ends so normally the members run out after sacrament to watch the parade... not this week though.)

On Sunday Camille got baptized! She wasn't an investigator, but we had taught her and prepared her to be baptized so it was a wonderful day. We had called her Saturday and asked her if there was anything we could bring or do to help, and she told us she wanted chocolate chip cookies. So, after quite a bit of struggling-because it's Europe- I made some very American chocolate chip cookies. The baptism was amazing, so many members stayed for the baptism, and they also had so many non-member friends and work colleagues come! 

Then as I said, it's Oktoberfest. Which is cool, but also...everyone is drunk, which makes it a little tricky for us but we've found some places to go where we can still street contact and not run into people from Oktoberfest. We are practically in Australia, because there are THOUSANDS of AUSTRALIANS here. As well as people from all over the world, but there are a ton of Australians and they have a designated area for Australians because they are crazy and loud. 

The work goes on!

This week I finished the Book of Mormon again, can I just say IT IS THE BEST BOOK EVER. Meine Gute! I love the Book of Mormon more than I can even say. There is no book that is more true, or that can bring you closer to God, and can strengthen your testimony more. That being said, I started the Book of Mormon again, and I just love the introduction. I skipped over everything before 1 Nephi the first 4 times I read it but on my mission I've started with the introduction and it just changes the book. The last two paragraphs go as follows:

"We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost. (See Moroni 10:3–5.)

Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is His revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the earth, preparatory to the Second Coming of the Messiah."

 I would like to extend that invitation as well, READ, PONDER, and ASK. You will receive an answer, and you can know for yourself!

Love y'all, have a good week!

Pictures:

Camilles baptism & group selfie, Cafe Katzentemple-it's a cafe with free roaming cats and free wifi..aka, could we ask for anything better?, face mask and UCAS reppin', Sister McAllister wanted to prove to me that she could make her own quesadilla.., as usual eating from an icetray while we made calls or something.

Sister Carley Lundskog
Kirche Jesu Christi HLT
Francéstraße 6
80997 München
Deutschland

The one that flew by 9/12/2017

This week has been good! I mean like honestly I'm not sure how it was because it went by sooo fast. I know there were definitely some rough patches but they're over now and time just continues to fly. It's kind of hard because of course we want the bad times to be over quick but unfortunately time works one way, it all goes fast or it all goes slow. Therefore the good times also just fly away. We've had some really interesting conversations with people while street comtacting.. so far we haven't really had anything come from them but people are interesting. It's amazing though because after (almost) every conversation as were walking away I end up saying "ahh I love them" and genuinely mean it. There are the few that we walk away from that I'm like, "that poor soul" and I'm just sad for a bit. I've learned so much though, it's crazy!! 

So Ihsan has been MIA for about a month. He hasn't responded to any calls or texts and we are just so sad about it. He was golden, so of course opposition had to come in. We're still hoping he'll appear again or that maybe he just went on urlaub and hasn't had phone service... Yanira was here as a nanny and the family she was nannying for is extremely against the church and started threatening her, so she was on the hunt for a new family. She found a new family and moved this weekend. So she lives in different area and we have to figure out what ward she's in and pass her over to other missionaries : (. Manuela lives in a psychiatric ward and they told us we can't come back anymore because "our presence is triggering the patients". Whatever that means. So we have to try to find a new place to meet with Manuela, which is hard because she doesn't like being in public or around people, and this is Munich. And it's hard to meet outside because the average temperature is 18 degrees everyday (high 50s low 60s) which doesn't sound super cold but it is. And it's always raining. We have a new investigator from dooring, she's awesome and sweet. She doesn't believe she can receive answers to prayers, but we are going to help her build her faith and see that she can! She's gone to many churches and has just been on a lifelong search for the truth. She's from Germany too, which is quite rare for investigators in the church here. We're excited. 

Food... umm we went to a less active sisters for lunch this week. She's from Hungary so she made goulash for us, which I've heard so many wonderful things about goulash. It's basically spicy beef stew. Which I said, and she was like "ja ja es gibt goulash in Amerika auch" so if you want some Hungarian food just make some spicy beef stew. Haha it was good though. Umm last night we had a dinner appointment and she's originally from Romania so she made some Romanian food. She made a vegetable soup and the only recognizable vegetable was carrots, I have no idea what else was in it but it was real good. And then she had like a rice beef tomato pepper casserole dish And it too was incredible, but again I'm not really sure what was actually in it but I loved it. 

The fall is fun. It came faster and stronger than we expected... I've worn tights and wool socks and a coat everyday this week! It's freeeeeezing! Worries me for Oktoberfest and dirndls though because I don't want to spend at least $250 on a dirndl and then just have to wear a coat over it. What's the fun in that? 

Randy story: 

Okay so Sunday we went street contacting at Sendlinger Tor (our usual finding place, it's right by Marienplatz), anyway we were waiting to cross a street and we heard this guy yelling behind us "sisters!? Missionaries!? Hey are you guys missionaries!?" We turned and we saw this guy just running at us, but and we were slightly stunned so it took us a bit to answer so he was like "sorry do you guys speak english?" Anyway he asked if he could talk to us for a while and if we did he would buy us food. We told him we'd talk but that he didn't need to feed us since we had just eaten and it wasn't a big deal. Turns out, he's a member he just hasn't been active for a little while now, he's from California. He's in Europe because he's trying to write a novel about what "love" is. He was married in the church and he and his wife were perfect, they were active in the church, they were bestfriends, but it came to a point where they started doubting the church a little and started losing their activity in the church...and then his wife had an affair. It crushed him but they tried to work it out for a couple of months and then she finally just gave up and didn't want to try anymore so they got a divorce. It broke him and he really struggled with it, and still does even though it's been a year or so (I think, it could be longer.) Anyway he decided to come on this venture to see what other people think love is, so he was in Ireland and Italy and he'll be going to Switzerland and France still. But he wasn't sold with the answers he was getting and was just sad. Then he saw us, and remembered the church's view on love and the eternity and that was the thing he loved most about the church so he decided to ask us our viewpoints on love and if we believe in eternal love and whatnot, very interesting. As we were talking to him he just kept thinking back to when he was active in the church and following the gospel and he just kept talking about how happy he was and how he knew it. Anyway, we're hoping that experience will get him to start trying to get back to church because he knows it makes him happy. But anyway, that's Randy and his story. It's a sad story but hopefully will turn out better for him, he was a super nice guy. 

Another finding story: on Thursday we were finding outside of englischer garten (not inside because there are always at least 40 butt naked people who just stand around waiting for people to look at them... And there's apparently a part of the river designated for naked people only where they yell at you for being clothed.. so we just stick to the border or stay outside completely). Anyway I stopped this man who ended up speaking English. Because he was an English speaker we asked where he was from and he told us Canada, we were like "oh that's cool!", I guess he didn't think we believed him because he pulled out his passport to show us he's from canada.. once he figured out we were from a church he just went off.. for probably 20 minutes without stopping about why there isn't a God and how we are being brainwashed. Then he apologized for disappointing us but that he was glad we talked to him so that he could save us. I responded kind of sternly with something like "well you believe what you believe, and we still believe what we believe. I've seen God in my life, I know He is there, and I cannot and will not deny it." He seemed a little flabbergasted, but then went off again for another 20 minutes and then told us we were pretty and shouldn't waste our time and do something else with our lives. Then he again said he was glad he could be here to help us find a new direction, and again I was like "we still believe in God. We're sorry you dont, but I know for myself that there is a God." He gave up and stormed off. I've never really had to stand up to anyone yet or truly stand my ground, I've heard stories of such things happening but it's never really happened yet on my mission till him. But it definitely was a situation where if I didn't actually know for myself, I don't know if I could have stood my ground. But I do know for myself! And his flattering words and his attempts to convince us, made no difference, it couldn't shake my faith.

I love yoooooou.  ♡♡♡♡

Sister Carley Lundskog 
Kirche Jesu Christi HLT 
Francéstraße 6
80997 München
Deutschland

The one where meine Mitarbeiterin ist Nüsse gegangen 9/5/2017

[For the record my subject line is not proper German, I am aware of that. Let me have my fun.]

Hey y'all, 

Last week we had dinner with Melinda, she is a JAE (young single adult) and she's working on her papers. We made Käsespätzle together and just talked about missionary work and answered her questions and it's just so exciting! She's such an awesome girl and will make such an incredible missionary! She's going to come finding with us soon just so she can get practice. :)

On thursday we had interviews with president again. President Brown is just so awesome and I'm glad we are given the opportunity to serve with him. It's always good to get more direction and pointers for missionary work. :)

Friday we went to Michael's again and HE HAD GONE TO UTAH AND BROUGHT BACK SOUR WATERMELONS FOR ME. Basically it was the greatest 2 minutes of my life until he took the bag away because he realized I was going to eat all of them without even thinking about it, but it was fun while it lasted... kind of rude to take a gift away but he said it was for the best. 

So this last week we've been with Elena a lot...Elena is a lady we have been helping the past few weeks with writing some proposals. She's not a member but she lives the standards and basically is a member besides going to church and having been baptised... (but She's so cool and shes done so much for the church!? She helped with translating the book of mormon and the gospel principles book into russian?!) She's originally from Russia so English isn't her first language so she just needs help with a few things, which it's lucky for us that my dream used to be to become an editor so we actually just have a lot of fun doing working together and helping her. Every time we go over she always wants to feed us, anyway, on Saturday night while I was just typing up her proposal and making changes where needed she came over and was talking about people and the reason people are so mean is because we eat meat... if people didn't eat meat we'd all be nice and loving. She talked about it for probably 20 minutes and then told me I should bear my testimony about it at church. Trying to be nice because she was obviously very passionate about it I was just like "oh Elena I don't think I have the vocabulary to do that in german." So she told me to do it when I get home as a testimony from my mission. So if someone somehow convinces me in the next year to become a vegetarian y'all know what the subject of my homecoming talk will be. 

Last night we had FHE with a young couple in our ward who have been married for 2 years. It was so fun! They both served missions so we just talked a lot about missions and life before and after the mission. It was cool. We have the coolest members here, I love it. 

Funny story of the week... We were at Jasmins with the elders for our weekly dinner and she was talking so fast in German that I kind of just tuned out.. But then I realized I actually understood everything she was saying and then I looked at the elders and Sister McAllister (all of whom go home in the next couple months) and realized that they had no idea what she was talking about for once. Finally, Elder Jensen asked about what the heck she was talking about so I explained and Jasmin was like ja ja genau. Guys she was talking about uteruses and periods. I learned the word for uterus in the MTC as a joke and that made all of the difference for that one appointment. Lol eeeeek. 

Well I don't have any time (as usual) and we didn't take any pictures this week.. But I hope you all have a fantastic week! Love you all!

President Harold B Lee once said, "This is the principle in action. If you want the blessing, don’t just kneel down and pray about it. Prepare yourselves in every conceivable way you can in order to make yourselves worthy to receive the blessing you seek” just cause you ask for a blessing doesn't mean you'll get it... just like everything else in life, it takes work. But God wants to bless you, so put the work in and you'll be drowned in blessings! 

Sister Carley Lundskog
Kirche Jesu Christi HLT
Francéstraße 6
80997 München
Deutschland